Who arms the finny race in coated mail,
Conforming all their habits to the stream?

Who in their plumage decks the feather'd tribe,
Adapts each wing to sail the yielding air,
And gives them by the music of their song
To cheer the solemn silence of our groves?
Who guides the swallow in her distant flight
Soon as the falling leaf the signal gives?
Who bids the robin hover round our homes,
From every harm secure? The corvorant
'Habit the cliffs, and from aerial heights
Dart on its prey? Who clothes the quadruped,
Instructs the patient sheep to seek their food
On the bare mountain, fits their fleecy sides
To yield to man the warm habiliment?

Whilst with her beverage the domestic cow
Affects the meadows and the peopled haunts.
Who bids the chamois climb the mountain's side,
Bounding upon the dangerous precipice?

The useful camel traverse desart plains

With hoofs prepared to tread the scorching soil

And brouse the thorny shrub, unhurt by thirst?

He who could wake creation with a word,

And circle it with his love; twas he conform'd

All various nature to its various end.

The hours their blessings give: Lo, morning comes Fragrant with freshness; then the rising sun

Rouses the senses, animates the soul,

And wakes the world to vigour; when his rays

Dart their meridian heat, O then how sweet
To seek the coolness and solemnity

Of some embower'd wood, some calm retreat!
Till his descending beams array the west
And welcome Evening in; hour of delight,
Whether enjoy'd mid social sympathies,

Or on the margent of some winding stream
The solitary wanderer silent roves
Contemplative.-Man can illume the night,
Chase midnight darkness, or dispel her glooms,
And in the absence of the lights of heaven
Create a mimic day: he can adorn

And more resplendent make the diamond blaze;

He bids theatric art amuse and charm,

With comic power to wake the lightsome mirth,
Or rouse the CONSCIENCE of the guilty soul.

But faint the splendors of the midnight rout,
Though thousand tapers shed their feeble rays,
To heaven's magnificence. I envy not

The crowded domes, the gay, the rich attire;
Give me the rural scene, give me to soar
On philosophic wing: whether we seek
To name each sparkling star, at distance set,
And each the sun of some surrounding worlds;
To mark the changing planets in their course
Attended by their satellites, or trace

The blazing comet in its devious way

Through heaven's expanse, as yet beyond the reach

Of mortal calculation. Who can dwell

On themes like these, and rest contented there?

To cheer the darkness of the polar realms The lengthen'd twilight and the Aurora gleam, And to allay the fever's raging fires

Amid the scorchings of the torrid zone,

The water lemon, and the coated gourd,

The fragrant orange, and the luscious pine,
Offer their cooling stores: whilst the full ear
Ripens in every clime, and freely gives

A banquet form'd to please and nourish all.—

And when, o'erpower'd, man's weary senses sink, Night mounts her darken'd throne, and silent reigns In sullen empire suited to repose.

How doth the eyelid guard the tender eye,

Close it in balmy sleep, and when refresh'd, ̧
Wake it to hail the day!-Thus nature gives

Her growths, her habits, and her wonderous powers,
All for man's use; he tills the stubborn earth,
Knows when to impregnate with the golden grain,
And when to reap the harvest; not content
With the rich produce that her surface yields,

He digs her hidden treasures from the mine,
Extracts the buried heaps of minerals,

And bids them minister to all his wants.

Nor earth alone explored, he upward mounts—

He only knows to raise the lofty hymn

Of Gratitude: he only can aspire

To mansions of celestial residence.

Not only at Creation's mighty birth

The Deity appears; in Providence

Conspicuously he shines the God of love!

I call the common bounties we partake
Το prove his strong affection for our race:
Yon genial sun emits no kindlier ray

T' illume the monarch on his throne of state,
Than to salute the peasant of the rock,

Who hails his rising from the mountain top:
Nor is the air which cherishes all life

Charg'd with more healthful powers than it instils
Into the mere plebeian's lusty veins:

The crystal stream that meets him on his way
Yields to the desart traveller a draught,

Welcome as rich Falernian ever gave

In purple streams to cheer the festive board;
And the same blade which gives the tyrant food
Supplies the labourer with his daily bread.
What though above the cottage in the vale
Rises the mansion of the wealthy great?
Yet oft beneath that lowly cottage roof
Dwells truest happiness, connubial love,
The sweet affections of a rising race,